13. Perinatal vulnerability
1 - Puzzling results of research on asphyxia at birth
2 - Two patterns of pathology and their causes
3 - Hemoglobin and the Bohr effect
4 - Degrees of severity
5 - Kernicterus and other additive factors
Research on perinatal hypoxia and asphyxia has revealed that two patterns of brain
damage can occur. Hypoxia (partial cutoff of oxygen) results in damage of motor
areas of the cerebral cortex. Asphyxia (total cutoff of oxygen) is less common, but the
immature of all mammalian species are able to withstand longer periods of asphyxia
and survive; asphyxia damages the brainstem nuclei of high metabolic rate with little or
no effect on cortical motor systems. The inferior colliculus is especially vulnerable to a
brief period of asphyxia in the perinatal period. The hypothesis presented here is that
impaired function within the inferior colliculus may underly the "core syndrome" of
autism.
Neurologic
Impairments
References
Notes
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